Insulated boxes or containers, commonly referred to as “coolers”, are well known for providing a manner of transporting and maintaining food, beverages, medicines and other perishable items while maintaining them within a desirable temperature range. Typically, these containers are provided with insulated walls to maintain the insides of the containers within a desired temperature range by reducing heat transfer through the container walls.
Another manner of controlling the interior temperature of a portable container involves the use of a heat pump, such as a thermoelectric system or a vapor compression system, in conjunction with a portable insulated container to actively heat or cool the contents thereof. Thermoelectric systems utilize the Peltier effect and solid state electronic components to operate as small heat pumps. These thermoelectric systems are formed by a plurality of thermocouples which are mounted between heat sinks and transfer thermal energy from one heat sink to the other depending on the direction of DC power applied thereto.
Consoles provided in vehicles have been used to provide an enclosed storage area which is accessible to the vehicle occupants. Typically, items not required to be maintained at a specified temperature are stored in the console and the console temperature generally corresponds to the ambient air temperature in the vehicle's cabin. However, it is not desirable to store perishable articles which have to be maintained within a specified temperature range, such as food, beverages, medicines, etc., in the console for an extended period of time.
All of these conventional storage systems have problems in that the portable containers either do not have a means for actively regulating the interior temperature thereof or are provided with self-contained heat pumps which raises the cost of the portable containers and makes them more unwieldy and the conventional vehicle consoles do not have a simple, efficient and inexpensive manner to regulate the temperature of a compartment contained therein and a removable, portable container which can form the interior of the compartment and self-regulate the temperature of its contents. The present invention addresses these needs.